Transgender and Nonbinary Gender Identities

Some cultures have acknowledged a non-binary gender for centuries such as India's Hijra, Japan's Wakashu, Mexico's Muxe and two-spirit people from American Indians.

PBS highlights gender-diverse cultures here:

The Gender Revolution

The Gender Revolution - A 2017 documentary from National Geographic and Katie Couric that is in-depth explanation of transgender as well as some of the latest science about sex and gender.

• Barbara Risman reviews the documentary in Contexts
• Here is a guide for the documentary
• Here is a review from Interact, an advocate organization for intersex youth
• Georgiann Davis, professor of sociology and an intersex individual helped the producers of the documentary interview and understand the stories of intersex individuals.  Davis is also the author of Contesting Intersex:

In Contesting Intersex, Davis draws on interviews with intersex people, their parents, and medical experts to explore the oft-questioned views on intersex in medical and activist communities, as well as the evolution of thought in regards to intersex visibility and transparency. She finds that framing intersex as an abnormality is harmful and can alter the course of one’s life. In fact, controversy over this framing continues, as intersex has been renamed a ‘disorder of sex development’ throughout medicine. This happened, she suggests, as a means for doctors to reassert their authority over the intersex body in the face of increasing intersex activism in the 1990s and feminist critiques of intersex medical treatment. Davis argues the renaming of ‘intersex’ as a ‘disorder of sex development’ is strong evidence that the intersex diagnosis is dubious. Within the intersex community, though, disorder of sex development terminology is hotly disputed; some prefer not to use a term which pathologizes their bodies, while others prefer to think of intersex in scientific terms. Although terminology is currently a source of tension within the movement, Davis hopes intersex activists and their allies can come together to improve the lives of intersex people, their families, and future generations. However, for this to happen, the intersex diagnosis, as well as sex, gender, and sexuality, needs to be understood as socially constructed phenomena. A personal journey into medical and social activism, Contesting Intersex presents a unique perspective on how medical diagnoses can affect lives profoundly.

Tey Meadow

Tey Meadow is a sociology professor from Columbia University and part of the Institute for the Study of Sexuality and Gender and is author of Trans Kids; Being Gendered in the Twenty-First Century. From the publisher;

Trans Kids is a trenchant ethnographic and interview-based study of the first generation of families affirming and facilitating gender nonconformity in children. Whereas previous generations of parents sent such children for psychiatric treatment aimed at a cure, these parents agree to call their children new names, allow them to wear whatever clothing they choose, and approach the state to alter the gender designation on their passports and birth certificates. Sociologist Tey Meadow argues that these parents are negotiating gender in new and significant ways, with everyone and everything, from intimates to institutions.
Drawing from sociology, philosophy, psychology and sexuality studies, Meadow depicts the intricate social processes that shape gender acquisition. Where once atypical gender expression was considered a failure of gender, now it is a form of gender. Engaging and rigorously argued, Trans Kids underscores both the centrality of ever more particular configurations of gender in both our physical and psychological life, and the increasing embeddedness of personal identities in social institutions. 

Just One of the Guys?  Transgender Men and the Persistence of Gender Inequality

Kristen Schilt draws on in-depth interviews and observational data to show that while individual transmen have varied experiences, overall their stories are a testament to systemic gender inequality. The reactions of coworkers and employers to transmen, Schilt demonstrates, reveal the ways assumptions about innate differences between men and women serve as justification for discrimination. She finds that some transmen gain acceptance—and even privileges—by becoming “just one of the guys,” that some are coerced into working as women or marginalized for being openly transgender, and that other forms of appearance-based discrimination also influence their opportunities. Showcasing the voices of a frequently overlooked group, Just One of the Guys? lays bare the social processes that foster forms of inequality that affect us all.

Public Policy and the Well-Being of Transgender and Gender Diverse Youth in the United States: A Sociological Resource for Public Understanding



Does Everyone Have a Gender? Compulsory Gender, Gender Detachment, and Asexuality

From the abstract,

Drawing on interviews with 30 asexual individuals, the author presents empirical findings that lend support to the plausibility of ungendering. On the basis of these findings, the author introduces the concept of gender detachment, which refers to individually held notions that gender is irrelevant, unimportant, pointless, and/or overall not a helpful framework for understanding and defining the self. The author argues that the difficulty of navigating these feelings highlights gender, and not merely the gender binary, as a compulsory system of categorization. The author also argues that this finding highlights the need to theorize around compulsory gender. The author concludes by discussing gender detachment’s connections to and differences from the concepts of degendering, ungendering, undoing gender, redoing gender, nonbinary identification, and gender vertigo. The author also considers gender detachment’s potential for radical resistance to gender (and the inequality gender produces) and the potential complications in realizing that potential.

From the Advocates for Trans Equality (A4TE), here is the National Transgender Discrimination Survey: Full Report

This report provides information on discrimination in every major area of life — including housing, employment, health and health care, education, public accommodation, family life, criminal justice and government identity documents. In virtually every setting, the data underscores the urgent need for policymakers and community leaders to change their business-as-usual approach and confront the devastating consequences of anti-transgender bias.

Sixty-three percent (63%) of our participants experienced serious acts of discrimination—events that would have a major impact on a person’s quality of life and ability to sustain themselves financially or emotionally. Participants reported that they had faced: 

• Loss of job due to bias
• Eviction due to bias
• School bullying/harassment so bad the respondent had to drop out
• Teacher bullying
• Physical assault due to bias
• Sexual assault due to bias
• Homelessness because of gender identity/expression
• Loss of relationship with partner or children due to gender identity/expression
• Denial of medical service due to bias
• Incarceration due to gender identity/expression

The Social Costs of Gender Nonconformity for Transgender Adults: Implications for Discrimination and Health

Using data from the largest survey of transgender adults in the United States, the National Transgender Discrimination Survey (N = 4,115), we examine the associations among gender nonconformity, transphobic discrimination, and health‐harming behaviors (i.e., attempted suicide, drug/alcohol abuse, and smoking). The results suggest that gender nonconforming trans people face more discrimination and, in turn, are more likely to engage in health‐harming behaviors than trans people who are gender conforming. Our findings highlight the important role of gender nonconformity in the social experiences and well‐being of transgender people.

Trans Medicine: The Emergence and Practice of Treating Gender

Drawing on interviews with medical providers as well as ethnographic and archival research, shuster examines how health professionals approach patients who seek gender-affirming care. From genital reconstructions to hormone injections, the practice of trans medicine charts new medical ground, compelling medical professionals to plan treatments without widescale clinical trials to back them up. Relying on cultural norms and gut instincts to inform their treatment plans, shuster shows how medical providers’ lack of clinical experience and scientific research undermines their ability to interact with patients, craft treatment plans, and make medical decisions. This situation defies how providers are trained to work with patients and creates uncertainty. As providers navigate the developing knowledge surrounding the medical care of trans folk, Trans Medicine offers a rare opportunity to understand how providers make decisions while facing challenges to their expertise and, in the process, have acquired authority not only over clinical outcomes, but over gender itself.

Sociologists for Trans Justice (S4TJ)

The mission of the Sociologists for Trans Justice (S4TJ) initiative is three-fold:

1. To support trans, non-binary, and intersex scholars in sociology
2. To advance trans, non-binary, and intersex studies in sociology
3. To increase public understanding of trans, non-binary, and intersex issues.

Applying Verstehen: Understanding the Transgender Experience

Inclusion and Nonbinary People

There are many ways of reinforcing the gender binary in everyday life and thus excluding non-binary individuals. Additionally, these binary practices reinforce the idea that males and females can only exist in exclusive poles rather than on a spectrum.  Some of the ways that these binary practices commonly show up are with pronouns, bathrooms and dress codes.  In all three cases, care should be taken to try to use neutral forms of each.  

·       Out and Equal provides resources and suggestions for each of these.

·       The NIH has a guide to inclusive language including saying "everyone" instead of "ladies and gentlemen" and another study from researchers at Princeton finds that using gender neutral terms at work creates less bias and more equality at the workplace.

·       Use the person's preferred pronoun and proper name as explained by Transequality.org.

 

For more info, the Human Rights Campaign Foundation has an FAQ available at their website.

 

Also, a guide to supporting the trans community is available from Transequality.org.

 

GenderSpectrum.org provides an extensive collection of resources including this list of how to make medical facilities inclusive: 

And the National LGBTQIA+ Health Education Center has a number of learning modules and resources including this Guide to Providing Care for Patients with Non-binary Gender Identities that highlights these best practices:

Sex on a Continuum
In terms of sex, Americans usually think of people as a binary that is either female or male. But there are numerous ways that sex exists on a continuum. Some humans are born intersex, a condition in which they have parts of genitalia that are considered male and female. Most often humans are born with genes that are either XX or XY but there are people born with other variations such as XXY. Scientific American explains the continuum here. And they provide a useful graphic here or here:

The continuum does not end at birth. As people enter puberty, generally males become taller and have more muscle mass, body hair and testosterone than females. But these traits do not exist as a binary – some females will have more testosterone and muscle mass and some males will have less. All of these exist on a continuum and do not fit neatly into boxes the way that US culture would them to. 
 
One example of the spectrum of sex is the IAAF's 2018 proposal of new rules that would exclude some female runners from competing in women's Olympic events. The Guardian explains (2018) how the International Association of Athletes Federation is searching for a scientific way to justify banning females with naturally occurring testosterone at above a certain level. Like Ibram Kendi explained how race is used to justify racial discrimination, science is being manipulated to justify the unscientific binary that draws a firm division between what is considered female and what is considered male.

Some cultures have acknowledged a non-binary gender for centuries such as India's Hijra, Mexico's Muxe, and two-spirit people from American Indians.

 

PBS highlights gender-diverse cultures here:

This map shows variation and diversity in how gender is interpreted around the world even though the dominant culture in the US suffocates any way of thinking about gender as anything other than masculine or feminine. 

3.13 Gender Inequality and Masculinity

Important Announcements:

After this lesson, the window will be open for midterm assessment 3.  You have until Thursday at class time to complete the assessment.

If you would like to submit a qualitative assessment for this unit, the assessment will be posted here.

This Friday will be the conclusion of our course.  Attendance will still be graded so please plan to be in class. We will have a course evaluation and I will give you an opportunity to work on your final essay and ask me questions.

Today's Lesson: Masculinity

Open the Google Form.

How does the binary affect males (and put them at risk)?

Now that you have learned how gender is socially constructed into a binary, we will examine one pole of the binary: masculinity.    Remember that the construction of the binary is just that - a social construction.  The socialization pressure pushes people to the extreme poles of the whole spectrum of ways that we can exist.  Those extreme norms put individuals in the USA who identify as masculine at risk. My hope is that if we realize that this is a dynamic affecting us then we can mitigate the risks.  So, this idea is not being anti-male; instead it is being critical of the ways that males are pushed to extremes within our culture.  It is being critical of the culture.


Getting started

Before we begin, please answer the following questions.  Answer each quickly with the first words that come to mind.  Please don't worry about foul language, just write the words that come to mind:


QUICKLY, without thinking, brainstorm, the first three words that come to mind:

1. What are three words that describe what it means to be a man?

2. What are three words that describe someone who is not a real man?

Pew Research: How Americans See Men and Masculinity (2024)

Pew Research: Acceptable and Unacceptable Behaviors for Men (2024)

CJ Pascoe's research and the construction of masculinity among peers and in high school 

 

NOTE: CJ Pascoe is a sociology professor who is part of the LGBTQIA+ community. From her website, 

 

"She has also worked with and advised various organizations such as the born this way foundation, true child, and the gay/straight alliance network to translate academic research into policy and programming for young people." 

 

Her research is about high school students (mostly heterosexual boys) and how they construct norms around masculinity. She found widespread use of the word f*g was being used by high schoolers, especially males, to attack each other's masculinity. Her book, Dude You're a F*g was published in 2007, before the more recent social pressure to see the word as a vulgar pejorative and remove it from everyday use. Pascoe is not using the word lightly or offensively - she is simply explaining how masculinity is constructed. However, because of the offensive nature of the word, I have redacted it, where possible. And although recently the word may be used less publicly, it is still used privately. Even if publicly the word is used less, many other words are used in place to the same effect - wuss, sissy, girl, baby, etc... So, Pascoe's research is still important to understanding the construction of masculinity. Also, Pascoe has a talk about how to support queer youth in schools here and an interview about cultures of kindness in high school here! 

 

Read an excerpt here. 

Pascoe wrote about her research in an essay in Contexts here. 

Here is a review from Everyday Sociology. 

Here is CJ Pascoe’s micro lecture on bullying and masculinity. 

3. What does Pascoe’s research show about masculinity? 

4. Do you think Pascoe’s research applies to your high school?

Oh hey, that's just me and CJ hanging out at the top of the IC.

How does the binary affect males (and put them at risk)?

The Mask You Live In is a 2013 documentary about masculinity from the makers of Miss Representation.  The video is available on Kanopy and below is a trailer:

 

Males are at risk because of masculinity norms

Recall the chart below from our lesson on the gender binary.  Use the chart to assess each of the three areas below in which males are at-risk.

Males at Risk in School

• In school, boys are 30% more likely to flunk, 250% more likely to be suspended and 300% more likely to be diagnosed with learning and emotional disabilities.
• From the NIH, this article explains how boys manifest ADHD differently than girls due to the expectations of masculinity.
• Males are less likely than females to: go to college and earn a bachelor's degree, earn a master's degree or earn a PhD.

5.  What is your hypothesis about why this is so?  How can these be related to the binary?  (Use the chart above to try and explain why traditional masculine traits might  lead to these educational outcomes.)

This article examines how males choose to be less involved at school and how that affects their ability to succeed:

Sociologists Thomas A. DiPrete and Claudia Buchmann explain in a report from their book, The Rise of Women: The Growing Gender Gap in Education and What It Means for American Schools,  

Boys’ underperformance in school has more to do with society’s norms about masculinity than with anatomy, hormones or brain structure. In fact, boys involved in extracurricular cultural activities such as music, art, drama and foreign languages report higher levels of school engagement and get better grades than other boys. But these cultural activities are often denigrated as un-masculine by preadolescent and adolescent boys.

Males and Health Risks

Young men are much more likely to die from accidental death than women: 

Males 20-24 are 3 times more likely to to die as a result of accidents,

4 times more likely to die from suicide and

6 times more likely to be murdered than women. (Ferris and Stein pg 256)

 

6.  What is your hypothesis about why this is so?  How can these be related to the binary?  (Again - refer to the chart above.)

Researchers Sandra Nakagawa and Chloe Hart conducted a study examining how gender identity influences eating habits.  

"...in the United States, where men have higher rates of life-threatening health conditions than women — including uncontrolled high blood pressure and heart disease — changing eating habits may be important for their health."

7.  Why do you think males have difficulty changing their eating habits?

8.  Hypothesize why traditional masculine traits might lead men to eat unhealthier.

After your hypothesis, read the explanation for the study here in Contexts.  From the link,

"This study shows that masculinity does matter for how men maintain their health. Importantly, it is not masculinity itself that is the problem here, but the high standards men feel they must meet (pun intended?)— and eat."

After reading the explanation above in Contexts, assess your hypothesis.  Was it correct?

Masculinity, Jobs, and risks/inequality

Some jobs are genderized and males are limited by the sexist socialization messages about gender. 

It is ironic, but misogyny actually hurts males.  Below is evidence about how gender inequality is limiting the jobs that males will do and the feminizing whole industries.  Males don't want to take jobs that they label as feminine.  Because of this, males are passing on some of the fastest-growing industries, like home healthcare.

• Why Men Don’t Want the Jobs Done Mostly by Women (2017)
• Job Listings That Are Too ‘Feminine’ for Men (2017)
• Contexts, The Pushes and Pulls of Gendered Occupations (2018)

In Gender & Society, Latonya Trotter finds that it’s not just exclusion from men’s professions, but the inclusionary policies of women’s professions that maintain distinctly gendered fields.

•  Here is an article in Harvard Business Review written by Janette Dill, an assistant professor in the sociology department at The University of Akron in Ohio:

The Entry-Level Health Care Jobs Men Are (and Are Not) Taking (2017)

This all signals that men, and particularly white men who are able to gain additional training, may be defining some health care occupations as more technical and masculine, preserving the conventional understandings of masculinity within the health care sector. Unfortunately, this also means that women and minority men may continue to be clustered in lower-paying direct-care occupations, where the “dirty work” remains stigmatized as “women’s work.”

And supporting professor Dill's work is this research about gendered language in job postings.

 

Washington Center for Equitable Growth provides this fact sheet (2017) about occupational segregation.

The genderization of jobs includes some of the following examples (Ferris and Stein 2018, 269-71):

Many jobs still highly genderized: nurses, early education (97%), dental hygenists, secretaries (94%), paralegals, housekeepers are highly female while pilots, carpenters, mechanics (98%), and firefighters (94%) are highly male.

Besides applicants self-selecting jobs based on gender, employers also select based on gender.  This research (2019) documented in Contexts shows that employers hire applicants by gender, based on their perception of what the gender of the job should be.


The Australian Men's Health Forum breaks down the research on jobs and gender discrimination here.

10.  Do you understand how the gender binary affects the jobs that males will take?

Males and risks of violence

Males are more likely to be both the perpetrator and the victim of violence.
From Statista 2022 (below) and from the Bureau of Justice Statistics (2010),

• 40% of teenage girls 14-17yrs say they know someone their age who has been hit or beaten by a boyfriend.
• 1 of 5 college females will experience some form of dating violence from their male partner.
• 1 in 3 High School students have been or will be in an abusive relationship.

These stats come from the Zacharias Foundation which is a local organization that will confidentially help individuals deal with sexual and domestic abuse.

9.  What is your hypothesis about why these stats might be connected to gender socialization?  How can these be related to the binary?

Michael Kimmel's book, Angry White Males 

Guardian Review here.

One of the headlines of the 2012 Presidential campaign was the demise of the white American male voter as a dominant force in the political landscape. On election night four years later, when Donald Trump was announced the winner, it became clear that the white American male voter is alive and well and angry as hell. Sociologist Michael Kimmel, one of the leading writers on men and masculinity in the world today, has spent hundreds of hours in the company of America's angry white men - from white supremacists to men's rights activists to young students. In Angry White Men, he presents a comprehensive diagnosis of their fears, anxieties, and rage.

Also a 2020 short film on Tubi and Apple.

Please read Adolescent Masculinity, Homophobia, and Violence Random School Shootings, 1982-2001.  It is a qualitative study in American Behavioral Scientist about who randomly shoots up schools and why.  Students can access it here.  Publicly it is also available here.

11.  What is Mahler (and Kimmel)'s overall claim?



Reproducing Mahler and Kimmel's Research

After understanding Mahler and Kimmel's claim and evidence,  we will attempt to replicate and update their qualitative research.   Their qualitative analysis of existing data on school shooters examined random school shootings in major print media outlets (Time, Newsweek, US News, USA Today, NY Times, LA Times). Below are two lists of school shootings to get started.

A.  First, choose at least one of the random school shooters after 2001.

• Wikipedia list of school shootings since 2000 
• MotherJones data set of all mass shootings (under the "location" column, see schools) 

12.  What shooter(s) did you research?

B.  After choosing a shooter to research, use major news outlets to gather data about some of the school shooters from 2001-present.

Try Googling the name and look for article detailing the incident in major newspapers.  Additionally, here are a few other websites to help you find info:

Ballotopedia

Edvocate

Everytown K-12 database 

Make a note of the shooter's:

• race 

13.  What was the shooter's race?

• gender 

14.  What was the shooter's gender?

• community: urban, suburban, rural

15.  What community setting did the shooting occur in?

•  state (red or blue in 2001) NRA gun law tracker might be helpful for determining the gun culture of the state or use the map below.

16.  Was the shooting in a blue state (more restrictive) or red state (more permissive) 

• other qualitative info about them such as music, video games, movies, parent status, mental illness, social status/teased, et al...

17.  What other details about the shooter were revealed?

After you have entered the data above for at least one school shooter, hypothesize whether Mahler and Kimmel's research still holds up.

18.  Do you think that since 2001, Mahler and Kimmel's claim is still true about who shoots up schools and why?

After you click submit, look at the data the other students found and think about these questions:

• Does your data correlate with what the rest of the class found?
• What do you think of the findings?
• Is this data interesting/insightful?  Why/why not?
• Can you see the connection between masculinity and violence?
• Do you think that the average American would have trouble understanding the connection?  Why?
• What questions do you still have?

EXTRA:

Try to apply the research to other random shootings besides schools.  Search the websites that you used earlier.  Again, you may want to use the IC newspaper search to find info about the shooters, or Google their names.  Here are a few other websites to help you find info:

Mother Jones Mass Shootings

Gun Violence Archive or GVA

Mass Shooting Tracker
TheTrace compiles articles and data related to shootings at thetrace.org
NRA gun law tracker

Does Mahler and Kimmel's research also apply to NON-SCHOOL random shootings?

Tough Guise

The documentary Tough Guise 2 from Media Ed critically examines the way masculinity has been constructed over time in a way that increasingly puts society at risk, especially males who are statistically more likely to be both the perpetrators and the victims of violence.



The documentary is available on  Vimeo and on Kanopy

The documentary is narrated and produced by Jackson Katz.  

Katz is the creator of Mentors in Violence Prevention (MVP).

Katz explains some of his work in this Ted Talk:

Here is a summary of the documentary's claims:

I.  Hiding in Plain Sight (3:29)

Our society does not recognize violence as a masculinity issue.

• Often when violence occurs, if the perpetrator is from a dominant group (white, male, heterosexual) that group is ignored.  Instead, when the perpetrator is from a minority group, then the subordinate group is mentioned such as:  females committing violence, or teen violence, or urban/inner-city (aka black) violence.
• Sometimes, the perpetrator is completely removed from the violence as in "violence against women" or "domestic violence"
• When violence is connected to males, it often gets explained away as being biological and natural.  
• However, violence is correlated to masculinity and rather being natural, it is constructed and taught by the culture.

II.  A Taught Behavior (10:42)

Our society socializes individuals to believe that masculinity is being strong, tough, uncaring, violent and willing to treat anything not masculine, such as women as objects of conquest, especially sexually.  This extreme form of violent (toxic) masculinity is reinforced by: movies, video games, NRA marketing, families/parenting, peers, schools.

Families/parents and the construction of masculinity:

Real Boys; Rescuing Our Sons from the Myths of Boyhood, book by William Pollock.  Pollock documents how at a very early age boys are taught to accept traditional male gender traits of being tough and repressing their emotions.
Excerpt available here.

Based on William Pollack's groundbreaking research at Harvard Medical School over two decades, Real Boys explores why many boys are sad, lonely, and confused although they may appear tough, cheerful, and confident. Pollack challenges conventional expectations about manhood and masculinity that encourage parents to treat boys as little men, raising them through a toughening process that drives their true emotions underground. Only when we understand what boys are really like, says Pollack, can we help them develop more self-confidence and the emotional savvy they need to deal with issues such as depression, love and sexuality, drugs and alcohol, divorce, and violence.

High School and the construction of masculinity:

Dude You're A Fag, book by sociologist C.J. Pascoe.  From the amazon summary, "High school and the difficult terrain of sexuality and gender identity are brilliantly explored in this smart, incisive ethnography. Based on eighteen months of fieldwork in a racially diverse working-class high school, Dude, You're a Fag sheds new light on masculinity both as a field of meaning and as a set of social practices. C. J. Pascoe's unorthodox approach analyzes masculinity as not only a gendered process but also a sexual one. She demonstrates how the "specter of the fag" becomes a disciplinary mechanism for regulating heterosexual as well as homosexual boys and how the "fag discourse" is as much tied to gender as it is to sexuality."  Here is a video of the authors discussing their work.

College and young adulthood and the construction of masculinity:

Guyland; The Perilous World Where Boys Become Men, book by Michael Kimmel.  Kimmel's research focuses on kids slightly older than those in Pollack's research.  Here is a review from the NY Times.

In mapping the troubling social world where men are now made, Kimmel offers a view into the minds and times of America's sons, brothers, and boyfriends, and he works toward redefining what it means to be a man today—and tomorrow. Only by understanding this world and this life stage can we enable young men to chart their own paths, stay true to themselves, and emerge safely from Guyland as responsible and fully formed male adults.  Here is a post from Kimmel in the wake of the Sandy Hook massacre.  Here is a TED Talk from him.  And here is a trailer for Guyland, a documentary about his work.

III.  An American Ideal (20:00)

America has constructed masculinity over time

Movies:  Westerns - Film Noir Crime Dramas - Gangster Films - Gratuitously Violent Action Movies - Sexualized Comedies 

Gunfighter Nation The Myth of the Frontier in 20th-Century America, a book By Richard Slotkin.  Excerpt from the NY Times;

According to the myth of the frontier, says Mr. Slotkin, "the conquest of the wilderness and the subjugation or displacement of the Native Americans who originally inhabited it have been the means to our achievement of a national identity, a democratic polity, an ever-expanding economy and a phenomenally dynamic and 'progressive' civilization." Central to this myth was the belief that "violence is an essential and necessary part of the process through which American society was established and through which its democratic values are defended and enforced."

Regeneration through Violence; The Myth of the American Frontier 

Richard Slotkin shows, 

"...how the attitudes and traditions that shape American culture evolved from the social and psychological anxieties of European settlers struggling in a strange new world to claim the land and displace the Native Americans. Using the popular literature of the seventeenth, eighteenth, and early nineteenth centuries-including captivity narratives, the Daniel Boone tales, and the writings of Hawthorne, Thoreau, and Melville-Slotkin traces the full development of this myth."

Video Games

Sports

Advertisements/Marketing

Politics

Leading Men; Presidential Campaigns and the Politics of Manhood, book by Jackson Katz.

In Leading Men, Jackson Katz puts forth the original and highly provocative thesis that presidential campaigns have become the center stage of an ongoing national debate about manhood, a kind of quadrennial referendum on what type of man—or one day, woman—embodies not only our ideological beliefs, but our very identity as a nation.  Of course this debate has enormous implications for women—both as potential candidates for the presidency and as citizens.

IV. The Cool Pose (27:17)

Males learn to create a "cool pose," or a "tough guise".  This role males play is a form of dramaturgy that becomes their identity.  The paradox is that how real of a man you are is based on how well you can perform this role.  Mobster movies influenced the cool pose of urban minorities which influenced the posturing of suburban and urban white males.

Cool Pose; The Dilemmas of Black Manhood, book by Richard Majors and Janet Mancini Billson.  Here is a review from the NY Times;

While the cool pose is often misread by teachers, principals and police officers as an attitude of defiance, psychologists who have studied it say it is a way for black youths to maintain a sense of integrity and suppress rage at being blocked from usual routes to esteem and success.

V. Upping the Ante (33:30)

Because masculinity is a construction, it can change over time; and it has become more extreme.

All of these provide evidence of more extreme norms of masculinity:

• Superheroes - from comic book character to action hero
• Toys - G.I. Joe from 12" biceps to 26.9" biceps

• Sports - from boxing to MMA
• Movies - from Humphrey Bogart to Dirty Harry to Rambo to Terminator
• Video Games - from Asteroids to Mortal Kombat to Grand Theft Auto

(SKIP? 37:00- 37:20) Pornography - from Playboy magazines to SMD and violent videos

VI. Culture in Retreat

Often when the dominant group (white, male, heterosexuals) feel threatened by social change, rather than adapt to the change, they retreat to traditional norms and ratchet up masculinity.

Recent example:  "The wussification of America."

1900s: Women's voting, education, recognition of gay as a sexuality, urbanization 

Reaction: Western dime novels, Boyscouts, (nativism, rise of KKK)

1940s:  suburbs, white collar jobs, female employment

Reaction: Men's magazines (Argosy, Stag), Western Movies,  

 1960s: civil rights, women's movement, anti-war movement, 

Reaction: Southern Strategy, rise of Reagan, 

1980s: Deindustrialization

Reaction: Rush Limbaugh, Alex Jones, Glenn Beck, 

                   and:  Militant Groups:

• Proud Boys
• Oath Keepers
• Three Percenters
• Boogaloo Boys
• Patriot Front
• Militias

Great American Hypocrites by Alex Greenwald

Ever since the cowboy image of Ronald Reagan was sold to Americans, the Republican Party has used the same John Wayne imagery to support its candidates and take elections. We all know how they govern, but the right-wing propaganda machine is very adept at hijacking debate and marketing their candidates as effectively as the Marlboro Man. For example:

Myth: The Republican nominee is an upstanding, regular guy who shares the values of the common man.
Reality: He divorced his first wife in order to marry a young multimillionaire heiress whose family then funded his political career.
Myth: Republicans are strong on defense and will keep us safe.
Reality: They prey on fears, and their endless wars make America far less secure.
Myth: Republicans are the party of fiscal restraint and small, limited government.
Reality: Soaring deficits, unchecked presidential power, and an increasingly invasive surveillance state are par for their course.

VII. All The Wrong Lessons (53:34)

Males learn that the only acceptable emote is through violence as exemplified by Sacha Baron Cohen and:

• Fight clubs
• Rape Culture - Steubenville rape case. (Skip? 56:15 - 57:30)
• Violence against people who are LGBT
• Violence against people who are homeless
• Violence against random people like school shootings and other mass shootings.

Violence; Reflections on a National Epidemic, book by James Gilligan.

Drawing on firsthand experience as a prison psychiatrist, his own family history, and literature, Gilligan unveils the motives of men who commit horrifying crimes, men who will not only kill others but destroy themselves rather than suffer a loss of self-respect. With devastating clarity, Gilligan traces the role that shame plays in the etiology of murder and explains why our present penal system only exacerbates it. Brilliantly argued, harrowing in its portraits of the walking dead, Violence should be read by anyone concerned with this national epidemic and its widespread consequences.

Out of all of the civilian firearms in the entire world, half of them are in the U.S.A.  In other words, half of all of the entire world's guns are owned by Americans - more than 300 million guns.  

And although there are enough guns in the U.S.A. for every American to have one, 2/3 of these guns are owned by just 20% of Americans.

Here is a critical analysis of Bush Master's Man Card marketing campaign from Voice Male.

The Takeaway (1:07.1):

We live in a culture that connects manhood to guns and a willingness to use violence at the deepest levels of men's identity; Telling young men that violence far from being the last resort for resolving disputes is the first and preferred method of proving you're a man especially when you feel your masculinity is under attack.

Beyond the Tough Guise (108:30)

We need to overcome this "tough guise" because of the harm it creates in our society:

• Men are most often the victims of violence.
• Most gun deaths (2/3) are suicides and 80% of these are white males.
• Violence is a leading cause of death for African American males age 15-30yrs. 
• Half of all deployed veterans have PTSD
• More Vietnam Veterans have killed themselves than were killed in action during actual combat.

In her book, Trauma and Recovery, Judith Herman studies the effects of violence and how that traumatic experience shapes those victims:

Trauma destroys the social systems of care, protection, and meaning that support human life. The recovery process requires the reconstruction of these systems. The essential features of psychological trauma are disempowerment and disconnection from others. The recovery process therefore is based upon empowerment of the survivor and restoration of relationships. The recovery process may be conceptualized in three stages: establishing safety, retelling the story of the traumatic event, and reconnecting with others. Treatment of posttraumatic disorders must be appropriate to the survivor's stage of recovery. Caregivers require a strong professional support system to manage the psychological consequences of working with survivors.

Terrence Real's book I Don't Want To Talk About It 

Twenty years of experience treating men and their families has convinced psychotherapist Terrence Real that depression is a silent epidemic in men—that men hide their condition from family, friends, and themselves to avoid the stigma of depression’s “un-manliness.” Problems that we think of as typically male—difficulty with intimacy, workaholism, alcoholism, abusive behavior, and rage—are really attempts to escape depression. And these escape attempts only hurt the people men love and pass their condition on to their children.

 

We need to redefine masculinity and demand different depictions of masculinity: 

• Show the real effects of violence and don't glamorize it: Saving Pvt. Ryan, Hurt locker, The Wire
• Show males with emotional complexity: Sopranos, Good Will Hunting
• Realize the cure for violence is NOT more violence
• Respect males who show bravery without violence: firefighters and first responders
• Respect males who support equality for women and are not threatened by it
• Redefine strength as being willing to change not digging into traditional masculinity even stronger.